Episodes
Tuesday Aug 28, 2018
Fasting-A Biblical Perspective. Matthew 6:16-18
Tuesday Aug 28, 2018
Tuesday Aug 28, 2018
Fasting – A Biblical perspective
Matthew 6:16-18
August 26, 2018
What really is the place of “fasting” in the Christian life???
- Fasting is something that is taught in the Old Testament!
- the only fast c_______________ in Scripture is the one connected with the Day of Atonement. On that day all the people were to "humble [their] souls" ( 16:29; cf. 23:27), a Hebrew expression that included forsaking food as an act of self-denial.
- Then we find that in certain national e__________ the people themselves appointed certain additional fasts.
- When we come to the New Testament we see that the Pharisees had gotten to the place that they were fasting twice a week...(Luke 18:11-12)...
- In Jesus’ teaching we find that although He never taught fasting d_______, He certainly taught it i___________...
In Matthew 9:14-15, it is quite clear that He is advocating fasting....."Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast."
And the text here “when you fast”, makes it clear that He e____________ His followers to do it, as it was a n____________ part of one’s spiritual life.
In our Lords own life He fasted, the most notable was the 40 days and 40 nights as He went through the preparation and testing of the wilderness.
- As we look at the early church we find that the church at Antioch was “fasting and praying” before they sent Paul and Barnabas out on their p_____________ tours.
It seems that on any i____________ occasion, when they were faced with any vital decision, the early church gave themselves to prayer and fasting.
- Paul tells us in II Corinthians 11, that He was in “fastings often”!
- In the history of the church we find that Christians of all ages and places have b__________ in and p__________ fasting....
“It is an act of self-denial, and mortification of the flesh, a holy revenge upon ourselves, and humiliation under the hand of God. The most grown Christians must hereby own, they are so far from having anything to be proud of, that they are unworthy of their daily bread. It is a means to curb the flesh and the desires of it, and to make us more lively in religious exercises, as fullness of bread is apt to make us drowsy.”
Matthew Henry
- the definition of most of the Biblical fasting would be, “a____________ from food for spiritual purposes.”...
- Nēsteia (fast) literally means not to eat, to abstain from food. Fasts were sometimes total and sometimes partial, and ordinarily only water was drunk.
- “In every scriptural account genuine fasting is linked with prayer. You can pray without fasting, but you cannot fast biblically without praying. Fasting is an affirmation of intense prayer, a corollary of deep spiritual struggle before God. It is never an isolated act or a ceremony or ritual that has some inherent efficacy or merit. It has no value at all—in fact becomes a spiritual hindrance and a sin—when done for any reason apart from knowing and following the Lord's will.
- Fasting is also always linked with a pure heart and must be associated with obedient, godly living.” John MacArthur
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